Market prices for certain types of financial instruments, such as those listed in Tables 1A-1C, can change quite significantly in very brief periods of time. However, because such instruments are oftentimes thinly traded, on many occasions there may be no offers to buy (“bids”) or offers to sell (“offers”) for a particular financial instrument (also called “products” herein). Although traders may be interested in buying and/or selling such instruments they may not wish to place bids or offers. Instead, they wish to have other traders make bids and/or offers on the particular instrument.
Thus, there exists a need for a method and system which allows traders to jump start a market, without exposing the traders to the risk associated with placing bids and/or offers.
TABLE 1AF/X ProductsOptionsVanilla and Currency Pair (USD/JPY, GBP/USD, etc.)Calls (European, American, etc.)Puts (European, American, etc.)Risk Reversals and Straddles (European, American, etc.)Strangles (European, American, etc.)Exotic and Currency PairKnock-ins/outs (calls, puts, etc.)Reverse knock ins/outs (calls, puts, etc.)ForwardsCurrency PairSpot startingForward startingCurrency Pair (i.e. Spot) Transactions
TABLE 1BFixed Income Products Swaps  Currency (USD, JPY, GBP, etc.)   Swap spreads (traded with treasury hedge)   All-in rate swaps   Spread switches   All-in-rate switches Basis Swaps  Currency   1-3/3-6/1-6 month basis swaps (London Interbank Offered Rate   (“LIBOR”), Tokyo Interbank Offered Rate (“TIBOR”), etc.)   CP-3 month basis swaps (LIBOR, TIBOR, etc.) Forward Rate Agreements  Currency   1/3/6 month (LIBOR, TIBOR, etc.)   FRA Switches (LIBOR, TIBOR, etc.) Swaptions  Currency   European (payer, receiver, straddle, etc.)   Bermudan (payer, receiver, straddle, etc.)   Bermudan-European Switches (payer, receiver, straddle, etc.) Caps/Floors  Currency   Cap/Floor, Straddle (LIBOR, TIBOR, etc.)   Digital Cap/Floor (LIBOR, TIBOR, etc.) Convexity Products  Currency   Cap/Floor, Straddle (CMS/CMT 2, 5, 10, 30 year tenors, etc.)   Rolling Spread Locks against a spot hedge   Rolling Spread Locks quoted outright
TABLE 1CEquity ProductsOptionsVanilla and Underlying (IBM, S&P 500, etc.)Calls (European, American, etc.)Puts (European, American, etc.)Straddles (European, American, etc.)Exotic and UnderlyingCallsPutsStraddlesForwardsUnderlyingSpot startingForward startingUnderlying (i.e. Stock/Index) Transactions